EASTERN CONNECTICUT OR WESTERN RHODE ISLAND, 1720-1740

Details

A WILLIAM AND MARY TURNED MAPLE BANISTER-BACK SIDE CHAIR
EASTERN CONNECTICUT OR WESTERN RHODE ISLAND, 1720-1740
48 1⁄2 in. high

Provenance

G. Winthrop Brown (1866–1938), Boston, by 1921
Margaret Buffington Brown, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, wife
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 15 November 1940, lot 193
Israel Sack, Inc., New York
Acquired from above, September 1978

Literature

Wallace Nutting, Furniture of the Pilgrim Century 1620–1720 (Framingham, Mass., 1921), p. 265 and (Framingham, Mass., 1924), pp. 370, 391, no. 495.
Israel Sack, Inc., American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. 6, p. 1621, P4717.
Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury (New York, 1963), no. 1943.
Patricia E. Kane et al., Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830 (New Haven, Conn., 2016), p. 193 (fn3).
The Sack Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery.
The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at The Yale University Art Gallery, RIF6355.
Peter Goodman, Notebook, no. 624.

Special notice

Please note this lot will be moved to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn) at 5pm on the last day of the sale. Lots may not be collected during the day of their move to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services. Please consult the Lot Collection Notice for collection information. This sheet is available from the Bidder Registration staff, Purchaser Payments or the Packing Desk and will be sent with your invoice.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Cara Zimmerman Head of Americana and Outsider Art

CZimmerman@christies.com +1 212 636 2230

Lot Essay

Notable for its elaborate turnings, including an exceptionally large ball on the front stretcher, this side chair is virtually identical to two others at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Chipstone Foundation. As discussed by Dennis Carr, these chairs relate to several others that display unusual carved crests and stretchers and as a larger group, illustrate the vibrant woodworking traditions on the Rhode Island-Connecticut border during the early to mid-eighteenth century (Dennis Carr, catalogue entry, in Patricia E. Kane et al., Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830 (New Haven, Conn., 2016), pp. 192-193, cat. 24; for the MFA, Boston and Chipstone chairs, see the Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery, RIF6353 and RIF6354).

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